Staffordshire Wildlife Trust was awarded £5,250 from the PEBBLE fund in 2019-20 to help establish Tucklesholme Nature Reserve for wildlife and the community.

Tucklesholme is a nature reserve in the making; a former gravel pit being restored back to a wetland habitat.

The site has been transformed into a nature reserve providing a home for a number of key breeding species that specialise in this open wetland environment such as oystercatcher, lapwing, shelduck and common sandpiper. It is also creating diverse bankside meadows for insects and butterflies.

We supported Tucklesholme Nature Reserve with a grant from PEBBLE for a number of initiatives.

The grant helped to provide a sand martin nesting colony. Sand martins nest in natural sheer cliff faces on river bends or in man-made sites such as gravel or sand pits and these are becoming increasingly rare. The nesting colony has a vertical face with sand-filled pipes for burrowing.

The funding also helped to provide an all-access bird hide with excellent views of both lakes and interpretation boards to help visitors identify the bird species they spot.